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PROSECUTION RESTS IN THE LOUIMA CASE

The prosecution wrapped up its case yesterday against the four police officers still on trial in the Abner Louima brutality case, but without presenting the kind of directly incriminating evidence that it amassed against Officer Justin A. Volpe, who pleaded guilty in mid-trial this week and threw himself on the mercy of the court.

The case appears to be speeding toward a quick conclusion. After the prosecution rested, just two days after Officer Volpe pleaded guilty to all the charges against him, the defense case began -- and quickly ended for two of the defendants.

The lawyer for Officer Thomas Bruder called no witnesses, and Officer Charles Schwarz's lawyer called only one. Officer Thomas Wiese's lawyers said they would call a couple of character witnesses.

Only Sgt. Michael Bellomo intends to testify in his own defense, his lawyer said. Judge Eugene H. Nickerson told the jurors yesterday that closing arguments could begin on Wednesday.

The prosecution's case against three of the four defendants is based in part on Mr. Louima's own account of being beaten and brutalized in the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn on Aug. 9, 1997, though he did not directly identify any of the officers aside from Officer Volpe. Prosecutors also used testimony from fellow officers and police records to try to tie the other defendants to the abuse of Mr. Louima, a 32-year-old Haitian immigrant, and subsequent efforts to cover up what happened.

In concluding its case yesterday, the prosecutors sought to end with a flourish by presenting what they suggested was the rest of the broom -- bristles attached to a stick that had been broken off -- that had been used to torture Mr. Louima. It was found a week after the torture of Mr. Louima behind a locker in the station house.

''There's absolutely no proof this is the other half of the notorious stick,'' he said.

Much of the evidence presented against the four remaining defendants, in three weeks of testimony in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, focused on Officer Schwarz. He is charged with holding Mr. Louima down while Officer Volpe rammed a stick into Mr. Louima's rectum, inflicting severe internal injuries.

Two witnesses testified that they saw Officer Schwarz with Mr. Louima shortly before the attack, and prosecutors sought to link him with Officer Volpe, who was fired from the force after his guilty plea.

Kenneth P. Thompson, an assistant United States attorney in Brooklyn, told the jury at the beginning of the trial, ''Justin Volpe and Charles Schwarz began to inflict their own special brand of punishment, their own special brand of torture.''

Officers Wiese and Bruder are charged with joining Officers Volpe and Schwarz in beating Mr. Louima, either after he was arrested in a melee outside a nightclub or in a police car before he arrived at the station, although Mr. Louima could not identify any of the officers he says beat him, except Officer Volpe. Sergeant Bellomo is accused of trying to cover up the beating in the police car.

The main evidence against Officer Schwarz, 33, came from Mr. Louima himself and two police officers who broke the ''blue wall of silence'' and testified for the prosecution.

Mr. Louima did not directly identify Officer Schwarz, but said that the officer who held him down during Officer Volpe's attack in the restroom was the same officer who had driven him to the station house. Police records show that Officer Schwarz was the driver.

The two officers, Eric Turetzky and Mark Schofield, testified they saw Officer Schwarz walk Mr. Louima, handcuffed and with his pants down, toward the the restroom area.

Mr. Worth vigorously cross-examined the prosecution's witnesses. Mr. Worth has said that Officer Schwarz was never in the restroom and that Mr. Louima was wrong in saying it was the driver of the police car who had held him down. He also underscored that Officers Turetzky and Schofield did not testify that they saw Officer Schwarz taking Mr. Louima into the restroom.

Officer Wiese's lawyers, Joseph Tacopina and Russell Gioiella, also largely waged their cases through cross-examination, and when yesterday's court session ended, they were in the midst of presenting character witnesses.

The evidence against Officer Wiese, 35, includes Mr. Louima's testimony that two of the officers who beat him in the police car were the same officers who took him to the station house. He did not identify those officers, but police records show that he was taken by Officers Wiese and Schwarz, and forensic evidence showed that DNA in blood found in their car was consistent with Mr. Louima's DNA.

Officer Wiese's lawyers contend that Mr. Louima's account of being beaten in the police car could not be believed and that the blood had come from injuries Mr. Louima received outside the nightclub.

Officer Bruder's lawyer, Stuart London, had told the jurors in his statement at the start of the trial that they would not be hearing much from him: ''There will be many witnesses in this case that I may not cross-examine or that I may not cross-examine for a lengthy period of time. That's not because I accept their testimony. It is because it doesn't affect my client.''

Mr. Louima testified that Officer Volpe and a second officer, whom he did not identify, approached the police car in which he said he was beaten and joined in the assault. Police records show that Officer Bruder, 33, was Officer Volpe's partner that morning, and police records also place Officer Bruder at the scene of the reported beating.

Mr. London also said Mr. Louima was not credible in his account of being beaten in the police car. He argued that the only reason his client was even charged was that ''he was Officer Volpe's partner that night.''

Sergeant Bellomo's lawyer, John Patten, has said he will put the sergeant on the stand when the trial resumes on Tuesday, which would make him the only defendant to testify. The prosecution evidence against Sergeant Bellomo, 37, includes a report he made about the events and a statement he gave to the F.B.I., both of which prosecutors said contained false accounts.

The prosecution also cited phone calls the sergeant made to other officers and investigators that they say indicate he intended to discourage Officer Schofield from going to investigators with his information, and then tried to obscure that intention.

Mr. Patten said the sergeant believed what he said in his report and statements, and if they contained any errors it was because he had relied on Officer Volpe and the other defendants for information about a chaotic situation -- the street melee. The phone calls, Mr. Patten said, showed that the sergeant had in fact urged Officer Schofield to cooperate with investigators.

Sergeant Bellomo was not charged in the assaults on Mr. Louima.

The prosecutors, from the office of Zachary W. Carter, the United States Attorney in Brooklyn, have told the jury that Mr. Louima was beaten in the police car and attacked in the station house restroom because Officer Volpe and three of the other officers mistakenly believed he had punched Officer Volpe in the face, knocking him down, during the melee.